This month's issue of Pacific San Diego Magazine features a story on four San Diego artists, of which I am one. You can read the story here. The article has a short interview with me as well as a layout with some of my caricature and fine art work. And a couple nights ago, the magazine threw an art party at La Valencia Hotel in La Jolla where my work was the centerpiece, along with works from other local artists. And when I say "centerpiece," I mean it literally. The hotel wouldn't let us hang anything on the walls. There really was no wall space to hang anything. So we had to display our works on easels. And the magazine decided to place my easels in the center of the room, which made me a little nervous for their safety, what with the loud music and open bar!

It was a nice event. I mostly talked with the other artists who were there and enjoyed watching the people looking at my work. Since I mostly do illustrations and commissions, and not gallery shows, this was a rare bit of personal interaction with the public.

I painted the Christopher Walken from the previous post for this event, as well as this Marilyn Monroe. After doing caricatures professionally for over sixteen years, I recently realized I had never painted or even drawn Marilyn, so I figured it was time. And this one got probably the most attention from the party guests.

Today is the birthday of one of my favorite actors, and probably my favorite caricature subject. I try to capture how he can look both scary and funny at the same time. Walken became well-known, early in his career for playing bad guys or mentally unhinged types. But he has done a lot more light-hearted and comedic roles in recent years. Some of my favorite Saturday Night Live moments are from his sketches: The Continental, Colonel Angus, and Shinshi-Shinshi to name a few.

Thank you, Mr. Walken, for the years of entertainment! Also, I painted this for an upcoming art show. More on that in a couple weeks...

I've been in a head painting class at the Watts Atelier taught by Stan Prokopenko and have a few oil studies to share. They are on either gessoed panel or a linen panel. Each one was done from a 3 hour sitting.

It's that time of year again where critics and publications are making their predictions for the Academy Awards. So the San Diego Union-Tribune once again asked me to do an Oscar-themed illustration for the cover of the Night and Day Weekend section. The composition was left up entirely to me. But unlike last year's illustration, which only showed the critic's choice for the best actor and actress, I wanted to include all of the major contenders for the Best Picture Oscar itself. And with the limited time I had to work on it, I needed a way to represent the films as a whole, in a simple way, and not make it look like I was focusing on just the actors.

In order to avoid having to draw and paint full bodies or complicated backgrounds, I came up with the picture frame idea, with Oscar himself playing the role of the critical viewer in a gallery or museum who is contemplating his choices. And each gold frame has elements which reference each nominated film in some small way. I kept the frame for "The Help" simple because it seemed appropriate that a movie about domestic workers have a less fancy frame. Still though, this illustration ended up being quite an exercise in rendering shiny gold surfaces.

And I'm so happy I finally got a chance to caricature Owen Wilson. What a weird schnoz!

I finally am back in a head painting class at the Watts Atelier. It's good to be painting from a live model again. Quick studies like this help loosen me up and keep me focused on economizing each brush stroke.

And this is a small 8 x 10 inch study of a crow from a photo I found somewhere